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Monday, January 23, 2012

babies don't keep

Riggs is only 11 days old today and I can't believe how much he has already changed. Everyday I know he is learning new things and developing new skills, which I am so excited about. Yet it's also bittersweet, because I know I'll never get these early days of his life back. I've been taking so many pictures and videos but there are things I can't capture to remember forever, like exactly how he smells and how it feels to hold him close and feel his little hand hold tight to my finger.

I found this poem on a blog I follow and thought I'd share. I know it brought tears to my eyes, but that doesn't take much these days :)

Song For A Fifth Child
By Ruth Hamilton, 1958

Mother, oh mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due.
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew,
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo.

But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo!
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait 'til tomorrow,
For children grow up as I've learned in my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs. Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep!

I'm making it a goal to take time every day to just hold my baby and cherish all the special things that he brings to my life.

2 comments:

Just a few minutes ago I was remembering my own mother, and what she had to do to bring me into this world 54 years ago. So much has changed, but certainly timeless is the love of a mother and her heartache over how quickly her baby grows. My mom told me about the heartbreak of watching me walk away from her without looking back as I went in for my first day of school; about the futility of wishing days would go slower; about the delight of seeing me succeed at what I'd set my heart to do.

One of the best things my mom did out of love for me was to stand up out of her wheelchair in the summer of 1996 at the Lansing Airport, so the possibly last sight I'd ever have of her as my plane pulled away from the terminal was of her standing seemingly whole and complete by my dad's side. Just a few short months later her forever final words to me were 'I love you so much' - quite probably the first words she'd ever spoken to me as well.

Cherish these moments of love, every day. Keep a journal so you can ponder these feelings in the future, when fate and time steal your little baby away and turn him into the man he's meant to be - but forever the little baby you brought into this world.